THE PRESIDENT: Listen, thank you all for coming. I appreciate the
hospitality you've shown us here at Patuxent Research Refuge. I want to
thank all the good folks who work here from the Fish and Wildlife Service,
as well as the U.S. Geological Survey.

One of the things we've discussed here is a significant environmental
challenge we face here in America, and that is birds are losing the
stopover habitats they need and depend on for their annual migrations. And
therefore I've come to discuss a strategy to enhance those habitats,
without which many birds could become severely challenged.

To me, this is a national issue that requires national focus. And so I
appreciate very much you all giving me a chance to describe our strategy
and thanks for your -- thanks for working for the country.

I am proud to be here with Laura, bird-watcher extraordinaire. I
appreciate Secretary Dirk Kempthorne running our Interior Department. I do
thank Wendy Paulson, who's joined us. She's on the board of the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology. Some of the recommendations -- or all the
recommendations that I'm describing today were brought to our attention by
Wendy and a friend of mine from Texas named Rusty Rose, both of whom serve
on this important university lab -- the board of the lab. I appreciate
Judd Howell, the director, who gave us a tour. And Brad, thank you very
much for joining us.

I also want to thank George Fenwick, he's the President of the American
Bird Conservancy, for joining us as well. Appreciate the staff members
here who worked on this initiative. Thanks for your hard work and your --
and bringing what I believe the American people will find is a commonsense
policy that makes sense for our future.

I don't know if you know this or not, but each year more than 800 species
of migratory birds brave stiff winds, harsh weather and numerous predators
to fly thousands of miles. Their final destination is the warm climate of
the American south, or the Caribbean or Mexico, where they stay for the
winter. These amazing travelers will then return to their breeding grounds
in the north. And as they span these distances, they fascinate and bring
joy to millions of our citizens. A lot of folks across the country love to
watch birds.

For these migratory birds, surviving their long journey depends on a
stopover habitat. That basically means they got to find a place to rest, a
safe place to prepare to continue their journey. Unfortunately, expanding
civilization has made it harder for these birds to find places to stop and
to rest.

And so that's the challenge we face and, you know, one area that -- one
reason we came here is because the National Wildlife Refuges like this one
provide stopover habitat, and they play a really important role in our
conservation efforts. My administration has supported the National
Wildlife Refuge system. We've expanded some of the existing sites, we
created 10 new ones, and we restored and improved hundreds of thousands of
acres of habitat for migratory birds. In other words, we recognize the
refuge system is an important part of preserving our bird populations.

And we've set a goal that by the time I leave office we will improve
another 200,000 acres. And I appreciate, Mr. Secretary, you joining us and
committing your Department to achieving that goal.

In addition to the wildlife refuges, we're also working to improve habitat
for migratory birds in our national parks. We've increased funding. But
we've got a new initiative that I want to -- want the American people to be
aware of, and it's called the National Parks Centennial Initiative. And
the idea is to match taxpayers' money with private donations to the tune of
$3 billion, so that we can improve our national parks. And some of that
money is going to go to restoration, to the restoration of a variety of
wildlife habitats, including some that directly benefit birds.

Improving our nation's long-term protections for migratory birds requires
conservation beyond the boundaries of our national parks and refuges. And
so one of the things this administration has done is to bring together
citizens and private groups and officials from every level of government in
the spirit of cooperation. In other words, we recognize that the federal
government alone cannot provide the habitat necessary for migratory birds.
We call this program cooperative conservation, and part of the emphasis is
to restore critical habitat.

One of the most important cooperative conservation efforts has been what
they call joint venture programs for water fowl. This program has brought
together federal, state and tribal agencies with private groups and
corporations to improve habitat on private lands. It's worked so well for
water fowl that we're now using it for other migratory birds. We've had --
we have 18 joint ventures now underway, and next year we're going to add
three more to help conserve birds along the Rio Grande corridor, the
Appalachian Mountains and on the Northern Great Plains.

Here's the way they work. Each venture, joint venture brings together a
team of biologists and land managers -- these are the experts -- and they
make -- and then they work with the bird conservationists in a particular
region to design and carry out critical habitat improvement. To enhance
habitat conservation we're going to put forth next week an innovative
policy called recovery credit trading. This policy will provide incentives
for landowners to improve habitat for migratory birds and other species.
Landowners can earn recovery credits for the habitat they improve and then
they can sell those credits. The idea is to provide incentive for our
private landowners to help deal with the concern that I started the speech
with, and that is to make sure there's critical habitat available for
migratory birds.

There's something else we can do. I asked Congress to provide tax
incentive to reward landowners who donate conservation easements.
Conservation easements are a good way to ensure the long-term preservation
of habitat. They allow people to give up the right to develop parts of
their land and then count the value of that right as a charitable
contribution. The proposal would allow good citizens who give these
conservation easements -- allow them to deduct a higher portion of the
donation from their income taxes, both in the year they donated and the
years that follow. In other words, this is additional incentives for
landowners to become a part of this comprehensive national strategy and
Congress needs to pass this piece of tax legislation.

You know, another important measure we've taken is in the conservation
title of the farm bill. This title encourages farmers and ranchers to set
aside critical habitat through a program called Conservation Reserve
Program, or the CRP. And our proposal to Congress as they rewrite the farm
bill, we're asking them to dedicate $50 billion over five years to make
sure that this program continues in effect. The program has been effective
for our farmers and ranchers and, equally importantly, for our bird
populations. And my hope is that Congress recognizes its effectiveness and
will continue to fund this program.

We're making progress in rural areas, but there needs to be some work in
urban areas. And so we've got an interesting program underway to help five
cities turn parks and local backyards into stopover bird habitats over the
next two years. In other words, what we're trying to do is to make sure
that we have a successful strategy in five cities that could become the
blueprint for cities all around the country.

Many species of birds live part of their lives here in the United States
and part in Mexico. So we have a strategy to work with Mexico to enhance
bird habitats in their country. I've talked about -- I've talked about
this issue with President Calder n. He shares my concern about making sure
there's critical habitat available for our migratory birds. The
Secretaries of State, Interior and Commerce are working with their
counterparts in the Mexican government. Non-governmental partners are
working to undertake important habitat projects in Mexico as well.

One of the things we have done is we've identified five priority habitats
in Mexico. We listened to the experts who pointed us to five important
areas and we have provided $4 million to support conservation initiatives
there. I also directed federal agencies to increase our nation's
participation in an international effort to protect coastal and marine
migratory birds such as albatrosses and petrels. Restoring habitats at
home and abroad is going to help us achieve the objectives and goals I have
set out, which is providing critical habitat for migratory birds.

Our efforts to restore habitats are strengthening bird populations. Since
2004, the Department of Interior has improved the status of five migratory
bird species, and the Department is helping ensure that more than 62
percent of our nation's migratory bird species are healthy and at
sustainable levels. But that's not good enough -- 62 percent is good, but
we can do better. And so I've asked the Secretary to -- Secretary
Kempthorne to focus on the status of five more species over the next five
years. And to achieve this goal we need good data. I mean, we just don't
want to be guessing about bird populations, we want to measure. And so
I've asked the Secretary to produce a State of the Birds Report by 2009.
This report will chart our progress, it'll identify species that need
additional protections, and help us bring more of America's bird species
into a healthy and sustainable status.

And Mr. Secretary, I appreciate your commitment. I appreciate the fact
that you understand America's greatness is not measured by material wealth
alone; it's measured by how we manage and care for all that we have been
given. We're people united by our belief that we must be good stewards of
our environment. The cooperative conservation policies that we have put in
place show our commitment to protecting America's migratory birds,
conserving the habitat they depend on and ensuring that generations of
Americans will enjoy the beauty of birds for decades to come.

I appreciate you all joining me. I want to thank you for your interest.
God bless our country.